The flashing blue numbers on the utility truck’s dashboard 00:03 felt like iron needles piercing straight through my retinas. The thick, sulfurous stench of diesel fuel oil hanging over the Lugalo medical warehouse yard suddenly became a suffocating weight inside my lungs. In that fraction of a second, the entire universe shrank to the sound of Sasha’s distant, soft breathing inside the armored carrier, and the sight of Doctor Chaulo standing completely exposed on the concrete loading dock, his grease stained green medical scrubs glistening under the harsh, amber emergency floodlights.
"Ester, clear the platform!" Leo’s voice boomed through the damp evening air like a thunderclap.
Before the countdown could hit the final zero, my brother’s lean, scarred frame moved with the blinding, ins
